Review of Morocco, directed by Josef von Sternberg

There are some movies that I simply know way too much about, despite having never seen them before. I’ve been obsessed with 1920s-1940s Hollywood for years now, and even debated doing PhD research in American history towards this period and the impacts of the film industry on broader America. But I didn’t, so here we are.

Morocco is one of those movies I knew existed out in the stratosphere, and there were many details within it that I already knew about because I’d written about it in passing. For example, I’ve mentioned in papers and in film writing that Marlene Dietrich had an early example of LGBTQ+ representation in this movie.

Yet, somehow, I had never seen it up until this point. This is a movie that always evaded me because I feel like I have to be in a certain mood to watch movies that are almost a hundred years old. I randomly saw it on Kanopy one day, decided I was in the mood, and pressed play because why not? Life’s short.

Anyways, here’s my review.

In Morocco, love and drama is in the air after an evening in a night club.

This movie takes place towards the end of the 1920s, in Morocco—hence why the title is named just that. Lots of lowkey Orientalist fantasy vibes going on here already, although our protagonists are all white Americans or Europeans. We begin this movie with a group of French Legion members.

We meet our protagonist Tom Brown among those soldiers. Heading to Mogador is a nightclub singer named Amy, who is done with everything and everything, including the rich guy, La Bessiere, trying to get cozy with her. She then acquires a gig at a nightclub in Mogador, and she’s going to be the main act.

As she performs, La Bessiere and Tom both sit in the audience. When Tom gives her some money for her performance, Amy actually gives him a key. Tom then ventures to her home, but then comes across the wife of someone he knows. This lady wants to get together with him, but he wants nothing to do with her and rejects her advances.

He makes it to Amy’s house, and they have a deep conversation. She asks Tom if he can be the reason she believes in men again (wow, such a tough ask!) because all she has ever know is men who betray others. For some reason, he’s honest and says he is the wrong man for that. She then kicks him out of her house.

On his way back, he encounters the wife, and her husband watches them interact. Amy comes after Tom, and he follows her back to her house. Turns out the wife hired some people to attack him though, and he defeats them.

However, the woman’s husband is his commanding officer, and he’s brought in front of him the next day for attacking the natives. He also makes it clear he knows his wife did something with Tom, and La Bassiere tells Amy that he can help Tom get out of this sticky situation.

Tom is then reassigned another battalion that’s leaving soon as a punishment, and he makes the executive decision to leave the army and run away with Amy. He ventures to her dressing room at the club, where he hears La Bassiere propose to Amy, and how she rejects him.

Tom then enters, and La Bassiere leaves as Tom proposes deserting and leaving for Europe. Amy agrees to leave with him, but says she needs to perform first. However, he sees a bracelet from La Bassiere on her rich, and decides the best thing for her is to marry a rich man versus someone like him with no prospects. He leaves behind a message on her mirror then leaves.

Amy then decides to go with La Bassiere the next morning to see Tom off. Tom heads off with his group, where they find men with a machine gun nest. His commander is killed by them, while La Bassiere and Amy agree to get married back in the town. She still wishes for Tom, but decides not to ruin her prospects.

They host an engagement party, but she leaves it when she hears Tom was wounded and in a hospital. They discover Tom was faking an injury to get out of being forced onto the battlefield. She finds him at a bar, where he has carved her name in the wood. She then realizes he still loves her.

Tom’s unit prepares to leave the next day, and she meets eyes with Tom before he leaves. As she sees women following the soldiers they love, she kicks off her shoes and decides to follow Tom wherever he goes.

Overall Thoughts

This was a very Pre-Code film, and I was living for it. I’m such a Marlene Dietrich fan, and if there are any good biographies of her out in the world, I need to get my hands on one of them.

Anyways, I’m glad I finally got around to watching this. I think this is such a solid movie from the period, and underrated in the sense that if you don’t know a lot about film, you’re not going to know about this movie.

So go watch it if you haven’t already! It’s a crucial part of film history.

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